Foto Friday: Skeleton Tree
www.landdesk.org
The tree caught my eye from the car as we drove along the little road outside Valyermo, California, population about three, as far as I could discern. Or maybe I should say the skeleton caught my eye. For the giant tree was no longer among the living: Its life had been burnt from it during the Bobcat Fire several years back. But it still stands. It still waves its majestic arms at the passing clouds. It still dances against a sky so brilliantly blue in defiance of the teeming mass of humanity just the other side of the mountains.
Not sure why, but your wonderful photos & prose brought forth tears.
Oh the lasting beauty of a tree exposed in all their forms. The cambium is burned gone and the tree is dead and yet they are still telling stories with all the twists and turns exposed now that the bark is burned, weathered, eaten away. Too magnificent to call a snag, this dead tree keeps giving life to all the creatures slowly transforming the cellulose, those perching, those resting and nesting, those basking in the shade, those basking in the beauty. Exuding magnificence indeed. Radiating magnificence! Thank you Jonathan for choosing to share this tree.